Live or Die, Fly and Rise
by Hunter Dracon
Summary: The Militia has renewed their offensive strategy. 2nd Lieutenant Ashley Noskov Melynski, an ex-dropship pilot, is a titan pilot with friends in high places. Tasked to recon an unfamiliar IMC planet, she links up with a man who's saved her life a few times after his spotlight during the Battle of Typhon. But compared to other operations, this one'll get a bit interesting.


Chapter One: Unknown Contacts

**A/N: Hey bois, how's it going. Ah yes a new story. If you're gonna slap me, might want to do it now, cause there won't be any time for it once you start to actually read. So I finally get to explore just how mysterious I can make things, while also ****dealing**** as much damage ****to the enemy**** as possible. When it's Life or Death, it's time to Fly and Rise.**

_Live or Die, Fly and Rise_

_Pilots and Titans share an immeasurable bond,_

_But some have even more than that._

_Very few pilots have the relationship that one particular pair have._

_The Bond between Father and Daughter._

_The Bond between the Creator, and the Creation._

Ashley groaned as she sat up from her bunk and rubbed her eyes.

"Please tell me it's not mission day…" she grumbled to herself as she swung her legs out from under the covers and touched her toes to the carpet.

She had just completed her fifty-sixth mission three days ago, and some of her bones still ached from the exertion, not to mention a blow inflicted on her titan that had bruised her spine pretty severely. It had very nearly been sprained along with a fracture of her left shoulder blade. But with modern medical practices most of the damage was healed by now and all that was left was an ache. It was a dull ache mind you, but could get sharper depending on what she was doing. But Ashley was used to pain at this point, and it rarely hindered her in combat. She stood up and winced as a sharp stab of pain shot through her left knee. That leg had been a trouble spot since training, and while she had full articulation, the limb continued to be troublesome, but, thankfully, not quite to the point where it caused any sort of problem besides pain. It was becoming a pain in the ass though, even though she'd been cleared for combat duty ten hours before now.

Ashley sighed as she put weight back on the leg and walked over to the adjoining bathroom that came with her small but functional quarters and took a look at herself in the mirror. To most men, and even women, Ashley was considered highly attractive, even with the scar that clipped the right side on her forehead, the second scar that cut into her bottom lip and ended at her chin, also on the right side, and the third that clipped her left eyebrow. She had dragon claw tattoos that curled around and up her neck. Her bare arms held the rest of the two dragons, which were not chinese or japanese, but rather western/european in nature. Her black hair was trimmed down fairly short, maybe two centimeters in length on the left side to her part and the rest three and a half inches from that same point in a long pixie cut. The sides of her head, at least, the side that was visible and had the shorter hair, which was the left, had two white streaks, and two more from the right side, which is hidden by her longer hair, that join at the back of her neck at the edge of her hairline. Ashley's eyes were a vibrant indigo blue with mixed silver streaks. He eyes were something people often said that she had the prettiest eyes around. Which in her opinion wasn't that big a deal.

She was only wearing a grey tank top and denim shorts, things she always felt more comfortable sleeping in, regardless of what current fashion was; which was something she didn't care about. Old fashioned was the new sexy in her opinion, but she didn't express that preference very often, and didn't associate with any of the other women besides maybe Commander Briggs and a few others who were the badasses out of all the female pilots around here. Ashley sighed again and then turned on the water in the sink before splashing her face and drying off. Then she started the hot water for shower and stripped.

The water was close to scalding when she climbed in, but where most people would add some colder water to cool down, she let it heat up further. She relished that heat as she rested her head against the wall of the shower stall, it reminded her of the rage she felt when her unit was cut to pieces by the IMC ambush two months ago. Many of the pilots that had died there had become her friends. Not close ones, but close enough. But the relief that the strange pilot and their titan had appeared had been so sweet, she'd been so pissed, and so damn scared at the same time before they had arrived, she hadn't wanted to die. She wasn't one for prayers or miracles, but if that hadn't been the latter, she didn't know what was. After cutting into the IMC ranks and reducing the ambush to gore and scrap, that pilot had disembarked and walked through the battlefield, killing any that were fatally wounded like a cold machine. Any who had non-life threatening injuries he let go. For a while at least, before he pulled a sniper rifle and shot each of them dead. The only ones who he kept alive were pilots and any soldiers who showed genuine caring for either their titans or their comrades, showing that their morals were still more or less intact. Then he climbed back into his titan and the bottoms of the titan's feet erupted into blue and silver flame before it shot into the sky before transforming in a split second before it was lost from sight. Ashley lifted her head off the stall wall and then washed herself before she shut off the water and grabbed her towel to dry off. Then she heard someone knock on her door three times.

"_Lieutenant! Get your ass in gear! The fleet's making planetfall in two hours! You'll want some food in you before we get there!"_

"Yeah I get it! Jeez." She called exasperatedly.

"_You're the only one who's not in their gear already! I understand you're still recuperating, but you gotta move it! Shit's gonna hit the fan!"_

"Shut the fuck up Nathan, you're not my damn babysitter!"

"_Sure… just move your ass before I have to come in there and kick it!"_

Ashley shook her head in annoyance. Nathan was always like that. As the Gunnery Sergeant of her unit, which has shrunk, he had the authority to advise his officers, that meant First Lieutenant Jason Derelo and then her, in addition to the other four members. Her unit was at squad strength right now, not battalion strength like it used to be. That spoke for as much as 80-90 percent losses in that ambush, and new recruits just haven't been coming in since the battle of Typhon. Ashley finished drying off and then began donning her gear. It took her five minutes for her to put it all on before she grabbed her V-47 Flatline, B3 Wingman Elite, and Hammond P2016. Unlike many other pilots, Ashley kept a second secondary, this being her late brother's Hammond P2016. It was the only thing she got off his body besides his dogtags after the ambush. But there was a difference between your standard factory made P2016 and the one that had belonged to her brother. It's barrel and slide were two inches longer than standard and it had an extended magazine of twenty rounds. Ashley took a moment to feel the grip of the automatic under her vest before she grabbed her helmet and opened her door. Militia soldiers and pilots were running past her room every twenty to thirty seconds or so before she holstered her rifle across her back and joined the ranks moving towards their briefing rooms. Her first destination was someplace else though, she needed a burrito.

"There she is!" First Lieutenant Derelo exclaimed as Ashley entered their unit's briefing room.

"Shut the hell up Jason. You know I'm still recuperating." She growled at her superior before she took her place amongst her teammates. "So what's the deal?" She asked as she unwrapped the breakfast burrito in her hands and took the first bite.

"Nobody's named the planet we're making planetfall, but intel says it holds a base and other fortifications vital to the IMC's operations as they continue to try to push us back and take the Frontier. I'm told we're supporting the Marauder Corps on this one, since all the other pilot units that are considered better than us are on other assignments."

"The Marauder Corps? Seriously?" the youngest of the group, Marcus Rekothes, age 19, asked with surprise. He idolized both Briggs, the late Lastimosa and Anderson, and especially Jack Cooper.

"While this is surprising, we are the best unit the Militia has that's available, even if we are drastically understrength." Ashley reminded everyone after swallowing. "So it isn't really that much of a surprise. I've worked with them before, and they're good at what they do. Cooper just happens to be a few steps above them. Hell, he's saved my ass more than once and I'm the best we've got in this unit."

"Yeah… well, we've got an hour and a half before we deploy, so I'll go over the intel." Montgomery stated. "We'll be dropping in with the other ground pounders, and our Titans will be dropping in about thirty minutes in. Fighter and dropship support will keep their Titans and vehicles occupied. Ashley, you're on recon. You have the most experience remaining undetected behind enemy lines, so you're going in way ahead of us in a stealthed dropship right alongside Jack Cooper in a new dropship that's been given to us. Word from the top says that even they don't know who it's from but she sure is a beast of a plane, and testing has revealed that she can't be detected by IMC sensors and radar systems, or anybody's as a matter of fact. You've got thirty minutes to get your butt to the dropship hangar for deployment.

"Wait what?!" Marcus exclaimed. "She gets to go on recon with Jack Cooper? You're shitting me!"

"Marcus, it's really not that big of a deal. Cooper and I have worked together in the past, that's all." Ashley stated as she wiped her mouth off with the back of her sleeve and wrapped up the rest of her burrito. She'd eat the rest as she walked to the hangar.

"I know, but just the two of you? That's fuckin' bullshit!"

"There's nothing between us. Now I gotta go get a set of satchel charges from the armory." Ashley stated as she waved goodbye to everyone and left their briefing room without another word. Walking to the ship's armory took maybe five minutes, and her conversation with the armorer another four.

"You're the one person who uses up the most satchel charges on the ship." Damian Whooler stated as he handed over three satchel charges.

"You know me Damian, I like to blow stuff up and satchel charges are probably the most efficient way to do it!"

"I know, but you're the one who always cleans me out em'."

"As long as you make sure you have some for me for every mission, I won't complain."

"Please no. None of that!" Damain cried out in mock fear and the both of them cracked up laughing. Damian was probably her best friend on the entire ship. He knew her love for explosives better than anyone, and while she didn't use rocket or grenade launchers, he knew exactly how creative she could get with just one satchel charge.

"Alright Damian, I've got a mission to execute, so I gotta run." Ashley said when she finished laughing turned around before walking out the door of the armory.

"Good luck!" Damian called after her, and got a wave through the doorway in response.

Blyat

Ashley walked into the hangar and immediately stepped back in surprise, nearly choking on a bite of her burrito. _Where the hell did they get this thing?_ The dropship in front of her currently took up the entire hangar to the point that they had to open up two more hangars just to fit it in the space. It was that big. But including that, it was sleek, definitely looked powerful, and was a beautiful aircraft in general with a long curved neck fuselage fitted with two sets of canards, variable swept wings, and twelve powerful looking engines. The Craft was painted all black with a dark indigo camouflage pattern that gave it a very daunting feel. "_Ashley!"_ someone called, and she turned her head toward the sound to see Jack Cooper smiling at her as he walked in her direction. He stopped just under a meter in front of her. "Hey, how've you been?"

Ashley smiled in response as she managed to swallow the bit of her burrito she'd nearly choked on. "Sore. The last mission I ran broke my left shoulder blade and bruised my spine up pretty badly."

"I heard about that. Must've hurt. So what's the story about that?" Then he saw her her burrito. "Hey, could I finish that off? I haven't eaten anything since dinner last night."

Ashley shrugged and handed him the rest of her burrito. "Sure." then she sighed. "To answer your question, it did hurt, but pain doesn't really bother me as much as everybody else." Ashley stated, and Cooper nodded in response, this was something he already knew about her from past experiences. "Anyway, the IMC called artillery on my unit's position and I was nearly caught in the blast radius of one of the shells. The shockwave blew Hunter, my new titan, back and sent me bouncing around inside the cockpit. He was really upset when it happened."

"I bet. He has an AI that's really close to being equal to BT's doesn't he?"

"I wouldn't say equal, but he's much more caring than so many of the other titans we have."

"I can relate to that. And now that _that_ subject is cleaned out. What do you think of the new dropship?"

"She's beautiful. By how did we get her in the first place?"

"I found her two days ago on small recon mission. Some anonymous source dropped some intel on a supply drop that they'd left for us and I was sent in to investigate. Sitting alone, shiny clean and ready for flight was the beauty you see in our hangar. _She_ really is a she, since the plane is flown by a hyper-intelligent AI that we couldn't have even dreamed of coming up with. Any attempts to get a hold of her coding have been completely sidelined by her. She says she's only on loan to us until we can meet her programmer and pilot. All the data we got on them is their initials. _S.S.S._"

"That's it? And excuse me for saying this, but that is blazing cool!"

"Maybe, but we can't get into anything in her belly. I mean, there's, fighter jet, two tanks, a fuckin' car, and a motorcycle in there, as well as a weapons construction lab and a fully stocked engineering suite. We could build at least four new titan models or more from the tech and the resources inside it!"

Ashley's jaw dropped. "You gotta be shittin' me." she exclaimed.

"Yeah, but it's all locked down so damn tight that we can't access any of it no matter how hard we try. There's also space for second fighter, but that bay is empty." Cooper stated. "The damn thing is powered by some sort of reactor that gives off no radiation, just energy, and has an energy signature that seems to be dark matter mixed with dark energy. But basically it's self sustaining. Any ordinance expended is automatically replenished, using the reactor to turn any excess energy into ordinance like missiles or cannon shells. Lesli, that's the AI's name, tells us that the whole damn thing was designed and built by one guy. One guy!"

"That's amazing! And we get to fly in her?"

"Hell yeah we do, but we're the only ones going in, no one else. Lesli doesn't trust anyone else to go it seems. Do you know why that is?"

Ashley thought for a moment before coming up with nothing. She shook her head, "Nope, I got nothin'."

"Well, it's almost time, so we better get onboard. I asked Briggs if she knew if the AI was trustworthy or not, and she didn't know, so no matter how amazing this ship is, we need to be cautious."

"Damn right."

Blyat

The flight had been relatively uneventful, except for launch and landing. The launch occurred as soon as they were aboard, meaning that as soon as they were inside the plane, the boarding ramp came up and the damn thing lifted up. Lesli wasn't one for bullshit, and preferred to get missions underway without delays. She flew the dropship out of the hangars and into space without so much as a second thought, then the engines spooled up to a much higher pitch than they had been at, and then suddenly accelerated away from the fleet as if they were moving at lightspeed. The ship really wasn't, but it was moving rapidly enough that the arrival at their destination planet happened within ten minutes of the flight beginning. Then it was flown right straight toward the planet before the nose pitched up and the reentry burn began. Once inside the atmosphere the nose dipped back down and the engines spooled back up as the aircraft banked left and made it's merry way to the drop zone.

To say the dropship was fast, even in atmosphere, would be an understatement. The thing traveled to the drop point, which was practically on the other side of the planet, in under thirty minutes; and about five minutes of that was just deceleration. For Cooper and Ashley, the whole trip was nothing short of both terrifying and exhilarating. The very thought of Lesli and the two of them leaving the fleet that was eating their exhaust so drastically was something they were still processing, even after a perfectly smooth landing. It took Lesli shouting at them at max volume to snap them out of their stunned stupor. Cooper, being the more experienced of the two, snapped out of it first.

"Right, we need to get moving before the IMC decides to drop in on us." Cooper stated with a brief intake of breath.

Ashley lifted her head off the headrest of the swivel chair she'd commandeered. She and Cooper had made themselves at home in the weapons manufacturing lab onboard. "Please tell me we've arrived. Cause otherwise, I'm not going to believe anything right now."

"Umm… We're at the drop point."

"Thank you…" Ashley said slowly, before she dropped her head back onto the headrest. Then she hopped right off the chair and grabbed her rifle.

"_Coming out of the counter should be several suppressors compatible with your weapons. They should operate with near complete silence, and keep your muzzle velocities and other ballistics in top form."_ Lesli said suddenly, just before the countertop in front of them opened up to reveal five unique suppressors. Three in front of Ashley, and two in front of Cooper.

"Should?" Cooper asked.

"_They have yet to be tested."_

"Greaaaaat. We'll let you know if they work as advertised." Ashley stated, but pocketed them nonetheless. Cooper gave her an incredulous look before following suit.

"_Troop deployment hatch opening now. Please make your way off the ship and begin your mission operations. I will lift off and provide overwatch and tactical data from orbit."_

"You can do that?" Cooper asked, shock coloring his voice.

"_Of course. It's part of my design."_ the A.I. replied almost smugly.

"Daaaaamn. Why didn't we have one of these before?" Ashley asked.

"Because they were only theory and being tested in a lab, BT being the exception." Cooper replied.

"You do realize my titan is an improved copy of that A.I. base right?" Ashley asked with a raised eyebrow.

"Proven A.I., I mean. BT has established a personality while HTR hasn't." he elaborated as she went to retort, "I don't mean that HTR won't, I just mean that he hasn't yet, thus making him something between a regular titan and BT."

"_As part of this craft's functions, I can also provide orbital fire support if necessary. However, missiles with heavier payloads will be slower to arrive than cannon rounds."_

"Is there anything you can't do?" Cooper asked.

"_I can't build capital spaceships and vehicles. But that's the most significant action that I cannot perform. That privilege is reserved for my creator."_

"Wait what?" Ashley was highly confused. "What the hell is that supposed to mean? Your Creator is a shipyard or something?"

"_Negative. My creator is a human being, as I already explained to you companion, and i do believe he said as such to you in turn."_

"Right, sorry. I forgot about."

"_Understood, now please disembark, hostile forces are four miles away and enroute. I will attack them to temporarily slow their advance on your position before increasing my altitude until I reach stable orbit."_

"Shit." Ashley stated before she ran out of the lab and to the deployment ramp. Cooper followed suit before he shouted his thanks to the ship and it's operating A.I.

"You know, we really need to find the person who made that ship and programmed Lesli and give them a big ass check!" Cooper told Ashley as they stepped off the ramp after slipping their helmets on.

"Agreed. But I have a feeling they'll find us." Ashley replied as they heard the ship's engines spool up and the deployment ramp close.

The thrust from the engines was more powerful than a standard dropship's jetwash. The thing was already surging into the air, 200 feet in altitude and climbing, even just in VTOL mode. Then it's afterburners lit up and the engines swiveled back into their default positions and the ship screamed away as it's wing swept back from their full extension. "But first we have a job to do."

"Copy that."

Blyat

The area was basically a massive canyon complex, heavily forested, and thick with vegetation. Going was slow for the IMC units. Among the large IMC scout force, there were only two piloted titans in total, and maybe twenty grunts separated out into four squads, as well as four extra pilots, one per squad. Then the missiles and cannon rounds came in from the direction that the massive dropship flew in. They blew the lead titan to pieces, along with it's pilot. Then the dropship roared past 300 meters above them, and two 500 kg bombs that were also dropped smashed into the second titan, penetrating it's cockpit before exploding. The explosions from both the missiles, bombs, and cannon rounds took out two squads, but left the four pilots unscathed since they saw the ordinance incoming. So had the titans and their pilots, but they couldn't react fast enough and were too large of targets for the hyper-intelligent A.I. that had fired them to miss. The pilots immediately began relaying to their base that they were under attack by an unknown force, and that they were calling in their titans immediately. Then the remaining grunts began moving forward under orders to find whatever the ship had deployed. Little did they know, someone was watching.

The first to die was a grunt on outer-rearguard, he saw nothing, just felt a sharp sting in his left armpit before he fell over, dead. The next grunt to die also didn't see his attacker, he heard a snap through the air before he collapsed with a neat hole through the back of his helmet and then a massive cavern from the front of his helmet and forehead. He was far enough way that nobody saw him fall, and the sound of it was muffled by the foliage. The next one actually saw his attacker, but only caught a glimpse of a helmet with a visor that glowed white and blue. The final one had a blade shoved through the back of his neck, severing his spine. The others found this one's body, and they knew... There was a shadow nearby, and it wasn't friendly.

Blyat

"At this point I don't even know what we're even looking for!" Ashley whispered to Cooper as they made their way as quickly and quietly as possible through the foliage.

"I don't either. I think we need to just find the base locations. I mean, this planet's supposed to be guarded by two battalions of titans and their pilots, in addition to support forces. They're guarding something really valuable here, and the top brass want to know what it is. But we could be looking for something that's literally all the way across the planet." Cooper whispered back. Then they both heard voices, and immediately took cover in the foliage.

"_Everybody spread out! We've got two minutes before our titans arrive and we need to find who killed them before they get here!"_

"IMC."

"Yeah. I count four pilots and six grunts." Cooper whispered. "What should we do?"

"Hold position, they're not looking for us." Ashley replied before she caught a glimpse of movement. One of the grunts was suddenly pulled into the foliage and she watched as blood splattered onto a tree trunk. "There!" she exclaimed and pointed, "One of the grunts was just killed, he was pulled into the brush, and then blood splattered the tree trunk in the same location, but the kill was hidden from view."

"That's one sneaky bastard, whoever's taking care of these IMC. Wait there goes another one!" Cooper replied as he watched another grunt get wasted with a bullet to the head before the body was pulled into the brush by a dark figure. "Jeez that's scary, what if that was us?"

"Whoever that is seems to have a bone to pick with the IMC, and no mercy for any of them." Ashley stated, bringing back a memory. "Hold on. Tell me if you see a white and blue visor the next time the figure appears."

"Umm… Sure." Cooper whispered before a dark clothed figure with a visor the designated color combination dashed out of cover and killed a grunt by running from one end of the narrow canyon corridor to the other, blowing the grunts brains out from behind with their sidearm. "You saw that right?"

"Damn right I did." Ashley stated as she shifted just slightly. "Should we help?"

"I mean... we could. But those pilots have their titans coming in remember?"

Ashley swore. "We need to move, if those things drop, those pilots are gonna find us in a heartbeat."

"I hear ya. Let's go while they're distracted. That pilot can obviously take care of himself." Cooper replied and her tapped Ashley's shoulder. With that signal, they moved away from the enemy as quietly as possible. It turned out they made the right decision, because as soon as they were around one of the bends in the canyon, the four titans arrived. It wasn't much longer before a fifth impact shook the ground and the sounds of titans fighting each other echoed through the canyon.

Blyat

The four IMC Titans, a _Scorch_, _Northstar, Tone, _and _Ronin_ were facing off against a single unknown titan that was much more humanoid in appearance, and carried _very _superior weaponry. But it wasn't using it's primary weapon, which didn't seem to be in view at all. The unknown titan was much more maneuverable, and because of it's humanoid construction and frame, it was much more agile, able to pull off some of the craziest martial arts stunts and moves throughout the fight. It even closed it's foot and kicked straight through the front hull of the _Ion_ and out the back with the foot, instantly killing the pilot before the unknown titan spun around and drove a massive knife through the SERE kit. The other three had stepped back at the execution of their comrade. In this close quarters, the unknown titan had the advantage with it's mobility and superior technology. Any rounds that hit it it didn't even care about. Then the _Ronin_ stepped forward and drew it's sword. "_Single combat. If I win, since you are a worthy opponent, I will let you live. What are your terms?"_

"_I will let you and your titans live, but their bodies will be destroyed. Their SERE kits will remain unharmed. However, if your comrades attack after you have been defeated, I will kill them."_ The voice that came from the unfamiliar Titan had an Australian accent. The IMC immediately had a theory that he was directly from earth. "_But you will remain alive."_

"_That is acceptable."_ The _Ronin_ replied and charged. The unfamiliar titan flipped the knife in it's right hand from it's reverse grip into a standard grip before using it to deflect the _Ronin_'s first strike, a lunge, upward before smashing it's left fist into the left side of the _Ronin_'s chassis. Making the IMC titan stumble backward a few steps before the unknown titan jumped up and slammed a spinning mid-air sidekick into the side of the _Ronin_'s upper chassis, sending it smashing into the side of the canyon wall, breaking several trees like they were twigs in the process. The _Ronin_ tried to push itself up, but it could not. The damage to it's frame was too severe, and it didn't have the arm strength it needed to do so.

"_I have decided I will let you keep your titans intact. Take this defeat and learn it's lesson. Challenging an opponent who is both in a better position, knowing the strengths and weaknesses of you, and you knowing none of their own, and whose titan is faster, will usually end only in defeat. There is no dishonor in that, as you have shown more than enough courage just by taking on a superior opponent. But learn to be wise as well, for you will most likely not have a second chance like I have given you."_ With those final words, the unfamiliar titan turned around and walked back through the canyon before it's form shimmered from it's center outward, and became invisible. Not even the sound of it's footsteps could be heard any longer.

Then the _Tone_ and _Northstar_ moved forward and immediately began assisting their comrade. They popped the emergency hatch before the pilots disembarked and began helping their battered and bloody comrade out of his wrecked titan and removed his helmet. "I feel as if this defeat was enlightening." stated the battered _Ronin_ driver before he coughed up several globs of blood.

"Ryusei, we gotta get you back to the base's infirmary. You're in bad shape." The _Northstar_ driver told him.

"I will survive. Grab the SERE kit. Sayuri will be too much of a burden for Starline and Trigger otherwise." Ryusei stated, "Do not do anything for Jackson and his titan. His death does not bother me."

"Dude it won't be that bad!" the _Tone_ driver stated. "Plus, Jackson kinda deserved what he got. He wasn't exactly a nice guy. I mean, I know the Militia is the enemy and all, but he's a sadistic bastard. I mean, he raped a female Militia pilot before he killed her in cold blood three missions ago! They should've court martialled his ass! But he was way too good a pilot for them to do more than have a goddamn hearing."

"The IMC needs more respectable pilots. But it's only the ones that aren't that seem to get the most recognition." The _Northstar _driver added. "But we've got other things we have to worry about. We gotta go back to base and make our report."

"No. They will only order the two of you and more pilots to deploy and capture that titan and it's pilot. You and the rest of them will be killed as a result." Ryusei stated firmly.

"What the fuck are we supposed to do then? Lie? This canyon hasn't had any collapses in years!" The _Tone_ driver exclaimed, only to be proven wrong as several large pieces of rock suddenly broke from the canyon wall and fell down onto the wreck of Jackson's _Scorch_, crushing it's armor and frame like tin foil. "I stand corrected."

"The fight must have destabilized the canyon walls. I mean, that titan was jumping onto and off of the canyon walls like a god damn street fighter in an alleyway."

"Makes you wish our titans could do that don't you?"

"Damn right. But we should really get moving, we don't want any of those rocks falling on us now do we?"

"Hell no. I mean, I'd rather not have to even worry about Starline's paint getting scratched. It's a pain in the ass to repaint a titan. Ya know?" the _Northstar_ driver stated. "Kyle, you grab the SERE kit. I'll get Ryusei. Let's move!"

"Copy that. Be careful with him will ya Rico?" Kyle told his friend as he climbed onto Sayuri's bent and twisted chassis over to her optic and quickly and carefully removed it. He then handed it to his _Tone_, Trigger. "Trigger's got the SERE, we good to go?"

While Kyle had handled the SERE kit, Rico had climbed into his _Northstar_, Starline, and gently picked up Ryusei, with as much care as physically possible with the assistance of his titan. "Yeah. Too bad we don't have a sort of stretcher to carry him with. I'm scared I'm gonna crush him."

"The sooner we get back to base, the sooner we can get him some medical help."

"Wilco." With that final word, the two pilots and their titans, carrying with them their wounded comrade and the data core of his titan, made their way home. They made the right choice moving when they did. Because about two and a half minutes later, boulders and massive chunks of rock from the canyon walls fell and crushed the twisted wreck that used to belong to the _Ronin_ class titan named Sayuri.

**A/N: Alright, reviews are highly encouraged. tell me if I screwed up anywhere, just don't yell at me for it.**


End file.
